Into the Woods
by PaperKayak
Summary: Stan decides to take the staff of the Mystery Shack on a camping trip in the Gravity Falls woods.
1. Chapter 1

"Dipper! Mabel!" Stanford Pines' voice boomed across the thin walls of the Mystery Shack. "Get down here already! You're keepin' us waiting!"

"Coming!" his great-niece replied cheerfully, bounding down the stairs with a backpack swinging from her shoulders, her dark green sweater bearing a picture a of a large brown acorn. "I'm all packed. Got my bug spray, flashlight, extra socks, my camera-"

"Good, so you're packed," Stan cut her off before she could list off her entire inventory.

Mabel nodded. "And Grenda's coming by to make sure Waddles gets fed. You sure he can't come with us?"

"Mabel, I'm not gonna waste any of my energy this weekend keeping a pig from running off into the woods. The pig stays."

"Oh, fine," Mabel pouted. She climbed up onto the counter, where Wendy was leaning, her duffel bag at her feet. "You ready for a super-fun weekend of adventure?"

Wendy snorted. "Sure, but I don't think we're going to get one with Stan here. If this wasn't 'mandatory employee bonding', I'd be at home, asleep, with the air conditioning on."

"Oh, come on!" Mabel said. "You'll get to share a tent with me, you know. It'll be like a slumber party!"

"Oh boy!" Soos cried, hurrying to join the discussion. "Dude, are we gonna tell spooky ghost stories and have pillow fights and stuff?"

"Would it be a slumber party if we didn't?"

Stan grunted. "Well, we're not gonna be doin' anything 'til your brother gets down here. Dipper! Are you done yet?!"

"Just a sec!" came Dipper's voice from upstairs. The others heard some shuffling overhead, and then several loud thunks blasted for the stairwell. They hurried into the foyer, to see Dipper climbing down the steps, lugging an enormous suitcase packed so full the sides seemed ready to burst.

"Dipper, what is all that?" Stan asked.

"My luggage," Dipper said. "I'm all packed."

"Geez, kid, we're only going camping for two days." Stan reached down and unzipped one of the bag's pockets. "What is all this stuff? A flare gun? Anti-venom? And is that your sister's grappling hook?"

"Oh, yay, I've been looking for that!" Mabel gasped.

Dipper's brow furrowed into a frown. "Grunkle Stan, I've told you before, there is something really off about those woods. I've already seen enough horror stories in there to write a book."

"Sure you have, kid."

"Dipper," Wendy said, "it's not like you've never been in the woods before. You don't need to bring along the world's biggest survival kit."

"Yes, I do!" Dipper protested. "Look, those woods are filled to the brim with all sorts of strange creatures. I've seen gnomes, minotaurs, gremloblins-"

"Here we go," Stan grumbled, shaking his head.

"And that's just during the day," Dipper continued unabashed. "I don't even want to know what all goes on in that forest at night. But of course-" he shot a glare at Grunkle Stan- "I'm going to find out tonight, aren't I?"

"Ah, you'll be fine," Stan said. "This'll be good for you. A chance to connect with the great outdoors, you know? 'Sides, you need some time to get your nose out of a book."

Dipper sighed. "Fine, I'll come if you make me." He grabbed the handle of the oversized suitcase. "But I'm not repacking."

"Suit yourself," Stan said with a shrug. "You're the one who's going to have to carry it." He turned to the others. "Everyone ready? Wendy, you got our fresh water?"

"Yeah, I got 'em," she replied, slinging the large canteens across her shoulders.

"Soos, you got the tents?"

"All ready to go, Mr. Pines!"

"Good. Let's head on out!"

The party walked out of the shack, with Dipper and his enormous luggage bag bringing up the rear. They had barely been walking a minute when his arms began to grow sore, and he quickly felt a line of sweat spring up on his forehead along the brim of his cap.

"Hey, Dipper, you gotta keep up!" Stan called to him from up ahead as his nephew's suitcase got caught across a tree root.

"I'm trying," Dipper grunted.

Soos frowned in concern and doubled back to help out the younger boy. "You wanna trade, dude?" he asked. "These tents aren't as heavy as they look."

Dipper let his arms fall and sighed in relief. "Would you? Thanks, Soos."

"No problem, dude," Soos replied. He slid the two folded-up tents off his back, handed them to Dipper, and picked up the latter's bag with surprising dexterity. "Come on, let's get moving before we lose Mr. Pines."

The two of them continued walking, following the thinly worn path deeper into the woods. The tents were lighter, but the rough canvas had the unfortunate side effect of quickly covering Dipper's back in a humid perspiration.

"Campground's almost in sight," Soos said after a while, pointing ahead to a small clearing where Stan, Wendy, and Mabel had already begun to unload.

"About time," Dipper said. Suddenly, he heard a small sound in the trees off to his left. A low groaning, or maybe a growl. He whipped his head around, but he didn't see anything among the trees.

"Soos?" he said tentatively.

"Yeah, dude?"

"Did you- did you hear something?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Soos said with a frown. "Why, did you?"

Dipper glanced back. The trees stood perfectly still an innocent. He could see nothing that could have been growling. Still, he could have sworn-

"No," he said at last. "No, I must have imagined it. Let's go help set up camp."

* * *

A/N: What do you think? Should I continue? I figure at some point in the future, Gravity Falls is going to have a camping episode, but I wanted first dibs on the premise.

_Update (17 June 13): _Credit for the cover image goes to tumblr's Kymbo3.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ouch!" Soos gasped as he cut his finger, again, on the two sticks he had been rubbing together over the pile of kindling. "I don't think this is working."

"And again, I'll be the one to point out the obvious solution," Dipper said in exasperation. "Soos, why can't one of us just go back to the Shack and grab a lighter?"

"Aw, come on, Dipping Sauce," Mabel said, plopping down onto the ground next to her brother. "That's not in the camping spirit. We wouldn't be roughing it if we just went back home everytime we needed anything."

"I recall you feeling a little differently when you had to go to the bathroom earlier."

Mabel blushed. Earlier that afternoon, when she had ask Stan where the bathroom was, he had simply replied, "Pick a bush, any bush." After that experience was over, Mabel decided she would just hold it the rest of the weekend.

"Hey, I got a flame going!" Soos cried. Indeed, a tiny flickering light was beginning to take shape beneath the logs.

"Yay! S'mores time!" Mabel said. "I'll go get a stick!"

Wendy emerged from the smaller of the two tents that had been set up in the clearing, her thumb and forefinger holding her place in the magazine she had been reading. "You finally got the fire going?" she asked.

"Yep," Soos replied. "Got it going with two sticks, dude. Like one of those survivalist guys on TV."

"Nice," Wendy said. "I'll go wake Stan." She walked over to the other tent, unzipped the flap, stuck her head inside, and yelled, "Naptime's over, sleeping beauty! Time for s'mores! About time, too," she added, pulling her head back out and addressing Soos. "I was about ready to just start passing out the marshmallows raw."

Stan slowly rolled out of the tent, yawning widely. "The fire's ready? About time. It's nearly dark."

"And as I told you all," Dipper said, "it would have been ready a lot faster if-"

"Yeah, yeah, you want to go home," Stan said. "Come on, kid, you can't put up with nature for two days without whining to head back? The rest of us have actually bothered to enjoy the camping experience."

"Grunkle Stan, you spent the whole afternoon napping in the tent."

"It still counts. Where's your sister?"

"Right here!" Mabel called, emerging from the woods carrying two long, thin tree branches. "I'm ready to roast marshmallows. Here, Dipper," she said, handing Dipper one of the sticks, "I got one for you too, since, you know, you're scared to go into the woods."

"I'm not scared," Dipper snapped. "Is it so terrible to be aware of danger and choose not to risk my neck by walking right into it?"

Stan sighed and pulled a sack of marshmallows and a box of graham crackers out of his luggage. "If Inspector Killjoy here is done preaching," he said, "are you guys ready to start on the s'mores?"

"Yeah, s'mores time!" Soos said. He beckoned Wendy over to sit by the fire with the rest of them. "Come on, I already grabbed a stick for you."

"Thanks," Wendy said, settling herself down on the ground.

The fire had by this point engulfed the stack of logs and kindling. The flames licked at the surface of the marshmallows as the sticks held them over the fire, slowly turning their white coatings a golden-brown. After everyone had finished their first s'mores, Stan asked the group, "So, any ideas for what to do the rest of the night?"

"We could sing campfire songs!" Mabel send enthusiastically. "I know a bunch of them!"

"Oh, no," Dipper groaned. "Someone, suggest something else."

"Come on, Dipper, it'll be fun! _There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza_. Join in, everybody you know the words!"

"Someone stop her!" Dipper said, clapping his hands over his ears.

"All right, all right," Stan said. "Mabel, no singing. You're disturbing the peace."

Mabel frowned and leaned back against the tent, pouting.

"Dude, I know!" said Soos. "We could tell spooky stories! We've got a campfire, the moon is full, we're in the woods-"

"Perfect ghost story setting," Wendy agreed. "I'm up for that."

Stan laughed. "Hey, Dipper, now's your chance to tell one of those monster stories of yours that you're always going on about."

"They're not stories, Grunkle Stan, they're-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Stan interrupted, waving his hand at his nephew as though waving away the words. "You know what, doesn't matter. I've got a better story anyway. Mabel, could you go get that flashlight o' yours?"

"On it!" Mabel said, perking up instantly and hurrying into the tent.

Wendy frowned. "Why do you need the flashlight?"

"Mood lighting," Stan replied, as Mabel handed him her flashlight and took her seat beside Dipper. Stan put the flashlight under his chin and flicked it on. Immediately, the curves and wrinkles of his face were cast into shadow. Combined with the dancing orange-red of the firelight, the effect left his face looking eerie, almost demonic. "This is the story," he began, "of the wolfman of Gravity Falls."

"Ooh!" Mabel squealed. "A werewolf story! Is it a romance? Does the-"

Grunkle Stan pointed his flashlight at his niece. "Would you like to tell the story?"

"No, thanks, you go ahead."

He sighed and returned the flashlight to his chin. "Okay, let's see, how did it begin? Oh, right!" He cleared his throat. "It began years ago, decades ago, right here in Gravity Falls. Now, at this point, the town was tiny, and far from any other city. There was no hospital, just a single healer's tent, and a single healer. And while the rest of the country had progressed to the surgeries and pharmaceuticals close to those of today, this healer relied on herbs, potions, and even magic spells.

"One night, a man came into the healer's tent gravely injured. He had been out in the woods hunting, and he had been attacked and bitten by some animal. His shoulder was torn, his shirt ripped to shreds. The man was barely alive when he came into the healer's tent."

"What were there names?" Mabel interrupted suddenly.

"Huh?" Stan said.

"The healer and the hunter guy. Do they have names? Or are you just going to call them 'the nurse' and 'the man' for the whole story? Because that's not very good storytelling."

"Okay, fine, they had names. Their names were-"

"Ooh, can I name them? I want to name the healer Clara and the hunter Wolfgang."

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "Wolfgang?"

"Yeah," Mabel said, "because he's the wolfman."

"I never said this guy was going to be the wolfman," Stan snapped.

"But he is, isn't he? I mean-"

"Anyway," Stan continued loudly, "The healer, Claire-"

"Clara."

"-Clara hurried over to help the... Wolfgang. She looked at the wound, but there was something out of the ordinary about it. The wolf, it seemed had been carrying some strange disease. Clara had seen this disease only in wolves before, but she realized that it was this disease that was killing Wolfgang, not the wolf. It seemed that this disease could be carried by wolves without killing them, but that it was fatal to humans.

"Clara was suddenly struck with an idea. She hurried over her trunk of potion and spell ingredients, and pulled out a small vile of wolf blood." ("Ew," Mabel whispered, before being quickly shushed by Dipper.) "She took the blood and poured it into the open wound on Wolfgang's shoulder. She thought that the bit of wolf in the blood could fight off this disease that was hurting Wolfgang.

"Suddenly, her patient began to convulse. His whole body lurched off the healer's cot, and he began to shake like a madman. Clara watched as slowly, fur sprouted up along the man's body, and his hands lengthened into claws, and his arched back tore through his shirt. Wolfgang turned around to face her, snarling and drooling, half-human, half-wolf.

"It only took a single swipe of his claw to kill Clara. Wolfgang ran out of the tent, and for the rest of the night, rabidly attacked any who crossed his path. That is, until morning. The moment the moon was gone, Wolfgang's fur and claws shrank back into his body, but he was still covered in the blood of his victims. Horrified, Wolfgang turned and ran into the forest of Gravity Falls, swearing to himself never to return to town until he learned to control his wolf half.

"He never returned. The people of Gravity Falls fear that Wolfgang never gained control over his wolf self, and is still out in the woods, always ready to strike another kill."

The little campsite was silent for a moment but for the crackling of the campfire. All of a sudden, a howl pierced the air. Dipper let out a scream and fell back against the girls' tent. Mabel burst into a fit of giggles.

"W-wha-" Dipper stammered, "th-that, that was-"

"A wolf, Dipper," Wendy said, "Not a wolf_man_. Heck, might even have been a coyote. Either way, we're still too close to town for anything like that to bother us."

"But," Dipper said, his head turning rapidly between Wendy and Stan. "But-"

"Geez, kid, calm down," Stan said. "It was just a story. There's no such thing as 'the Wolfman of Gravity Falls'."

"Yeah, come on, dude," Soos concurred with a nod. "I mean turning a man into a werewolf with wolf blood? That doesn't make any sense, you know, science-wise."

"Hey, the fire's starting to go out," Mabel said, pointing to the lowering flames.

"Hmm, yeah, I guess it's getting late isn't it?" Stan stood up and began kicking dirt onto what was left of the campfire, extinguishing the remaining flames. "You all have your sleeping bags set up?" Everyone nodded. "Good, I'm ready to hit the hay."

Mabel and Wendy retired into their tent, while Stan went into the boys' and flopped into his sleeping bag immediately. Dipper stood up shakily, and Soos went over, put his arm around Dipper, and began leading the boy over to the tent. "Aw, don't let your uncle's story spook you, dude," he said. "You know there's no such thing as werewolves."

* * *

A/N: A huge thank you to everyone who has left a review!


	3. Chapter 3

Dipper awoke when the moon had reached its zenith, feeling as though his leg were being crushed. For a moment, a wake of panic swept through him, but he turned and saw that Soos had simply rolled on top of him in his sleep.

"Soos!" he hissed. "You're on top of me!" Soos mumbled something in his sleep, but otherwise didn't budge. Dipper grabbed his hat, which lay beside his pillow, and whacked Soos' shoulder with it. "Soos, wake up!" he whispered. The bigger man's response was to roll over further, so that he now lay on both of Dipper's legs.

"Darn it, Soos!" Dipper said. He kicked and squirmed until he finally made his way out from under Soos, who, amazingly, still had his eyes firmly closed, and still mumbled incoherently in a deep sleep.

Dipper pulled his blanket into him and tried to make best of the little space left between Soos and his uncle. He closed his eyes and tried to get back to sleep, but he couldn't succumb to it. His cramped position notwithstanding, he was all too aware in the relative stillness of the sounds echo off the canvas walls of the tent: Soos' mumbling, Stan's incessant snoring, and a rowdy chorus of cicadas from all sides.

After nearly ten minutes of the snoring and mumbling clouding his head, Dipper finally grunted, "That's it," and stood up. He picked up his blanket, vest, and cap, then quietly tiptoed over his uncle and unzipped the flap of the tent, and he made his way over to the girls' tent.

"Mabel?" he whispered as he unzipped their entrance. "Mabel, could I sleep in-"

He paused, and he realized that Mabel was at the far side of the tent, while Wendy slept stretched along the entrance. Dipper had all but forgotten that Wendy was in this tent as well. She had kicked have of her covers off in her sleep, and her long bare legs curled into her pajama-clad torso, sporting green plaid pajama shorts and a black camisole. Even while she was asleep, Dipper could feel himself getting tongue-tied.

"Right," he muttered, "looks like I'm sleeping outside."

He went into the clearing where a faint scent of smoke still lingered from the s'more-making earlier that night. He spread his vest over a patch of grass to stave off any dew, then let his hat work as a pillow as he curled up under the blanket.

With a sigh, he shut his eyes and tried to relax. The cicadas were still noisy, and he had to keep his head turned away from the full moon whose light managed to penetrate his closed eyelids, but it was still better than being designated as Soos' mattress. He'd be perfectly fine for the night, assuming there was no sudden rain, and that the morning didn't get too cold, and there was no attack by the-

Dipper's eyes shot open and he groaned. He had nearly managed to put Grunkle Stan's stupid story out of his head for night, and now, while he was trying to fall asleep right out in the open, it came creeping back. He closed his eyes again and tried to reassure himself in his head. _Don't be an idiot, Dipper. Grunkle Stan just told a dumb little campfire story. You know there's no such thing as werewolves. No one else got freaked by that story. You gotta calm down._

A crash sounded suddenly in the trees a ways back from the girls' tent, and Dipper felt his heart accelerate to a drumroll. _There's nothing there, there's nothing there_, he thought, yelling the mantra in his head. _Just a dead tree branch breaking off. Or it could be a deer, or a raccoon, or-_

_Or the werewolf. _

Curse his paranoid mind. He stood up, pulled his vest and cap on, and carefully made his way around the tent to peer into the trees. However, under the thick canopy of the interwoven branches, the trees and the spaces between them all appeared as spindly shadows and silhouettes, and he couldn't see more than a few feet into the woods. There's nothing there, there's nothing there, he repeated, but it was futile. There was no way he'd be able to rest easy until he knew for sure.

First thing first, he needed to a way to see. Quietly as he could, he went back to the girls' tent. He tread carefully around Wendy on the tips of his toes, cringing when she rolled over and scooped her pillow more tightly into her arms, then sighing in relief as he saw her chest rise and fall in deep slumber. He made his way over to his sister and gently shook her shoulder.

"Hmm, ugh, wazzat?" Mabel grumbled, turning over in her sleeping bag.

"Sshh!" Dipper whispered glancing over to make sure they hadn't woken Wendy. "Mabel, where's your flashlight?"

"Huh?" she asked, blinking at her brother in the thin moonlight.

"I need to borrow your flashlight."

Mabel squinted. "Didn't you pack a flashlight in the ginormous suitcase of yours?"

"Yeah," Dipper whispered back, "but it's way at the bottom, and there's no way I'll be able to find it in the dark."

"Well, then, just use a flashli- oh. Yeah, okay, I get it." She sat up and reached for the backpack at the foot of her sleeping bag. After rummaging through the largest pocket for a moment, she pulled out the flashlight. Handing it over to her brother, she asked, "What do you need this for anyway?"

"I think I heard something in the woods, and I just want to see what it is."

In an instant, Mabel was wide awake. "You're investigating something?" she said, forgetting to whisper. "I wanna come!"

"Mabel, sshhh!" Dipper whispered urgently, glancing back at Wendy. "And you don't need to come. It was probably a squirrel or something, and I just want to be sure."

"But what if it's some sort of weird magical creature-y thingy? You wouldn't want to be all alone then, would you?"

Dipper hesitated, then sighed. "Okay," he said, "okay, you can come. But _stay quiet_."

Mabel pantomimed zipping her lips closed, then crawled out of the sleeping bag. She and Dipper silently made their way out of the tent, zipping the flap closed behind them.

"So?" Mabel asked, still taking care to whisper, "where did you here it?"

"Right over there," Dipper replied, gesturing to the clump of trees. "Come on, I'll lead the way."

"I'm right behind you, Broseph," Mabel said, ducking into the trees after him.

The two of them trekked between branches and around the trunks, Dipper pointing the flashlight in front of him with a shaking hand, trying to remember from which direction the sound had come. His nerves were on edge, and every snap of a twig made his stomach jump.

"Dipper?" Mabel said at last. "Whatever you heard, I think it's gone now."

"Yeah," Dipper said, dropping his shoulders in resignation. "I guess we should head back to-"

He was cut off when a crash came from his right, and he whirled the flashlight around to see several tree branches bouncing in the wake of whatever had made the sound. "Or not," he said, his pulse flying. He hurried over to the tree branches.

"Hello!" Mabel called. "Mister creature thing? Where are you?"

"Mabel, what are you doing?"

"Trying to call the monster! Duh!"

"Mabel, that isn't going to work," Dipper said, turning to search a farther clump of bushes. The moment he turned the flashlight, he froze.

There, in the beam's spotlight, was an enormous snout. Whiskers as thick as needles stuck out from a melon-sized nose that glistened in what little moonlight poked through the trees. Even as he watched, the lips of the snout's mouth curled back to reveal a huge yellowed set of pointed teeth, bared and dripping a thick drool off there edge. Dipper heard a deep snarling sound, and a waft of warm, odorous breath clouded his face.

Behind him, Mabel let out a shriek.


	4. Chapter 4

Wendy's eyes slowly creaked open as she felt footsteps climbing over her. She tried to ignore them; it was probably Mabel just needing to go to the bathroom again or something. But did she really have to whisper to herself like that?

She sighed and buried her head into her pillow, hoping to fall back asleep before Mabel came back into the tent and stepped on her again. Wow, it was hard to fall back asleep. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried a foolproof method. _Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall,_ she sang in her head, _ninety-nine bottles of beer. If one of the bottles should happen to fall, ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall. _

She kept going, feeling more dead to the world after every verse. Finally, at fifty-eight bottles, she stopped. Not because she had managed to lull herself back to sleep, but because she had noticed something.

Mabel still wasn't back.

Wendy rolled over to glance at Mabel's sleeping bag, thinking that perhaps Mabel had returned, but was quieter this time and Wendy had missed it. Unfortunately, the sleeping bag was absent the younger girl, and Mabel's flashlight was no longer in its place at the foot of the bag.

With a frown, Wendy sat up, feeling suddenly wide awake. She unzipped the flap of the tent and poked her head out to look around the campsite's little clearing. "Mabel?" she whisper-shouted into the night. "Mabel, where's you go?" Nothing.

"Dang it, Mabel," Wendy muttered. She pulled on a sweatshirt and snatched up her own flashlight. "You better not have gotten lost or anything. I need my sleep."

She climbed out of the tent and began wandering the perimeter of the site, shining her flashlight between the trees, keeping her eyes peeled for a glimpse of curly brown hair. Surely Mabel couldn't have wandered that far from the tent.

_Well, she might have_, Wendy thought. _She really didn't like going to the bathroom in the woods. Maybe she decided to go back to the Shack? Mabel, you dork, you should have asked me to go with you. _

Satisfied with that explanation, Wendy flicked off her flashlight and started back toward the tent to catch up on lost sleep, when she froze, then whipped around. She could have sworn she had just heard a scream, and it hadn't come from the Shack; it had come from deeper in the woods.

Her heart pounded against her chest. What on earth had the kid been thinking, going off on her own like that? She hurried over to the boys' tent and walked in to Stan's gargantuan snores assaulting her eardrums.

"Stan," she half-shouted. "Stan, wake up." Stan grumbled something and rolled over. Fuming, Wendy walked to his side and half-nudged half-kicked him in the abdomen. "Stan, I said _wake up_!"

"Mmf, hmm, Wendy?" Stan muttered, not even opening his eyes. "Wha' the heck 're ya doin' in m' bedroom?"

"You're in a tent, Stan, and get up!" Wendy said, reeling back for another, much harder kick. "Mabel's gone missing."

"Ugh," Stan growled. He placed his palms on the ground and forced himself up, his back giving a crackle of protest. "Knowing her, she probably woke up, saw a deer, and decided she had to befriend it."

"I don't think so," Wendy said. "I think- I think she might be hurt. I heard something out in the woods, and I think it was a scream."

Stan stared at her for a moment, then stood up and rubbed his temples. "I swear, if my hair hadn't been gray before the kids showed up it sure would be now."

Beside him, Soos mumbled something and opened his eyes. "It's still dark outside, dudes," he said. "Why're we all waking up?"

"I can't find Mabel," Wendy replied. "I think she went out into the woods."

"Oh, dude, that ain't good," Soos said, nodding. "We gonna go out and look for her?"

"Apparently," Stan said. He had sat up against the canvas wall and begun pulling on his shoes. "That kid can't sit still for one minute, can she?"

Soos glanced around the tent and furrowed his brow in puzzlement. "Did you guys already let Dipper go off after her or something?" he asked.

"What do you-?" Wendy began, then her voice caught in her throat. She and Stan both turned their heads to the corner of the tent where Dipper had fallen asleep the night before. Sure enough, it was empty. Wendy cursed herself. How had she not noticed that the moment she came into the tent.

"Okay, okay, great," Stan said. "So now we've got two kids missing? What the heck possessed them to go wandering off by themselves in the dead of night like that?"

"Maybe it was that story you told last night," Soos suggested.

Stan stared at him. "What the heck are you talkin' about? What about my story?"

"Well, I mean Dipper all curious about monsters an' stuff, isn't he? Maybe he thought to go looking for that wolf-dude you were tellin' us about, and Mabel wanted to tag along."

Wendy shook her head, stunned. "No. They wouldn't, would they? I mean, last night, Dipper was terrified to go within six inches of the woods. I don't think he'd go off _searching_ for trouble like that."

"Well, then, you tell us, Wendy," Stan said. "If they're not off looking for werewolves, then where are they?"

Wendy hesitated. "I-" she stammered, "I guess-" She stopped, and the three of them turned to look out through the tents flap as another scream ripped across the woods and into the campsite.

"You know what," Wendy said, "It doesn't matter why they're out there. The fact is, they are, and we need to go get them."

"You got it," Soos said with a serious nod. "You know, I think Dipper packed a couple o' weapons. Maybe we could-"

"We're not going to fight anything, Soos," Wendy snapped. "We're just gonna go find Dipper and Mabel and bring them back safe and sound. Come on," she added, and she began leading the group out of the tent and into the woods.

* * *

A/N: Helpful hint: reviews are like diesel for my typing fingers.


	5. Chapter 5

For a tiny moment that felt like an hour after his face first found itself inches from that of the beast, Dipper could only stand frozen in place. He heard Mabel scream behind him, and he felt and heard her begin to scramble back into the trees, but it didn't really seem to register with his mind that was all too focused on watching the moonlight glisten off the enamel of every one of those dagger-like teeth. That is, it didn't register until he felt his sister tug on his vest and scream into his ear, "What are doing?! _Run!_"

Dipper didn't need to be told twice. His feet broke the fear-induced roots that had held him to the ground, and he took off after Mabel, not caring which direction she ran, as long as it was away.

Behind him, he heard the growl that was beginning to grow distressingly familiar. But this time, it seemed to have been amplified a thousand times over. Every thin hair on the back of his head stood straight up, but he refused to look back. A few feet beyond him, Mabel darted between the tree trunks, her green sweater bouncing in and out of the flashlight's beam.

They had run far deeper into the woods when Dipper tripped over a shrub whose branches had spread out onto the thin trail between the trees, and he was sent skidding onto the needle-covered ground. He looked back in horror at the creature that was still in close pursuit, then ducked his head with a yelp as the beast's back arched at the ready and its paws shoved off the ground and sent the animal sailing towards him.

To his amazement, it didn't attack him. Dipper watched in awe as the enormous silhouette sailed over his hunched figure and kept on away, bounding into the forest.

His moment of rest didn't last long, however, when he realized why the beast had missed him. Mabel was off in the trees through which the creature had just broken. The werewolf was after moving prey.

"Mabel!" he called out, scrambling to his feet and hurrying to follow the beast. "Mabel, it's coming! Mabel, watch out!" He swung his flashlight wildly around the branches, trying to figure out in his rush where his sister had run.

"Dipper!" Mabel's voice suddenly shouted in response. "Dipper, help!"

Immediately, Dipper hurried off in the direction he thought was the source of the voice, and in no time he saw the creature again. It was hunched over at the trunk of a tree, the hairs on its spine sticking up like rigid mountains, snarling up into the branches. On a thick limb above it, just out of range of the talon-like claws that raked the dirt floor, Mabel stood, her face pale, gripping the trunk of the tree for dear life.

She looked up as Dipper approached. The wolf either followed her gaze or was alert to the boy's presence as well; it, too, turned its head to Dipper. It let out a horse bark that sent a rope of saliva arching across its maw, then reared back to start another chase.

"Hey!" Mabel yelled, as though the creature were capable of listening to reason, "You stay away from my brother!" She yanked on the branch above her, and the limb crashed down right onto the beast's neck.

The werewolf let out a howl of rage and twisted its head around to snap viciously at the branch. Dipper took the opportunity to rush around the wolf to Mabel's tree. Mabel jumped down from the branch and landed half on top of Dipper, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

"Come on!" Dipper cried, pushing his twin off of him and grabbing her hand as he pushed himself up. "Run!"

They took off, Dipper now in the lead. His flashlight did little to guide them, as every tree looked exactly the same, and the beam was too jerky as he ran to really tell where the light was even pointed, but he kept it out and in front. Behind them, they could hear the pounding of the wolf's paws, growing louder by the second.

"Dipper," Mabel panted, "I think it's getting-" She was cut off when she suddenly released Dipper's hand and fell to the ground with an ear-piercing scream. Dipper wheeled around and grabbed her again, trying to pull her up, but something stronger seemed to be trying to yank her back.

With all the strength he could muster, he dropped the flashlight- and heard the bulb shatter on the ground as the trees around them were plunged into a heavy darkness- grabbed Mabel with both hands, and turned as hard as he could. It seemed to have been effective, because she stood back up, albeit shaking all over, and gave Dipper a shove, as though to tell him, "Keep moving!"

And they did. The twins ran, weaving through the trees, nursing a myriad of scratches from pine needles that had brushed against their limbs and faces, until they reached one of the cliffsides that surrounded Gravity Falls and were responsible for its name.

"A dead end!" Mabel cried, staring at the shadow that rose up above her like an enormous wall.

"No, no," Dipper said, taking her arm again, "Not a dead end. These cliffs are full of, hang on-" He edged along the cliff, staring unblinkingly at its rock wall. "There should be- yes!"

And with that, he yanked Mabel into a small opening in the face of the cliff.

For a moment, the two of them stood, hardly daring to breathe, listening for the creature to come leaping into their little grotto with claws bared. When it didn't, Mabel slid down the wall of the cave with a moan. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her hands tightly around one of her ankles.

"Do- do you-" she gasped out between exhausted breaths, "do you think we lost him?"

Dipper cautiously peeked his head out of the grotto's entrance and glanced warily around. The trees were perfectly still. "Yeah," he replied with a sigh as he sat down next to his sister. "Yeah, we lost him."

"Good," Mabel said. For a moment, the brother and sister sat without a word. Dipper listened to the cicadas buzzing outside, and was amazed that, after all the roaring and crashing of minutes before, he had ever thought those stupid bugs had been too loud to sleep through.

"Dipper?" Mabel spoke up after a while.

"Yeah?"

"In all those stories about werewolves," she said. "How was it that people would become one? Was it all magic spells, like in Grunkle Stan's story?"

"No," Dipper responded. "I don't think so. I think the main way was that a werewolf would bite a human, and it would turn that person into another werewolf. Like zombies, I guess. Why?"

Mabel closed her eyes and slowly moved her hands away from her ankle and turned it so that it was illuminated by the shaft of moonlight that had crept into the cave. Dipper stared. Several angry red gashes stood out from her thin calves, sending zig-zagged rivulets of blood trickling down and dying a red ring into the top of her sock.

"Because," she said in a whisper, "whatever that thing was, I think it bit me."

* * *

A/N: Yeah, it would appear that the story has gotten a little darker since the initial chapters. Be sure to let me know how you like it so far!


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh man," Dipper whispered, his eyes fixed on Mabel's ankle. "Oh man, oh man, oh man oh man oh man."

"You don't-" Mabel said, "you don't think this means anything, do you? I mean, I'm not going to transform into a werewolf or anything like that, right?"

Dipper hesitated. His first instinct was to say, no, of course not, even if that thing had been a werewolf, there's absolutely no way it could cause one of them to transform. Still, it wouldn't be the strangest thing he had seen this summer.

After a few seconds, Mabel let out a defeated sigh. Dipper's silence told more than any spoken answer would.

"Okay, let's not panic," Dipper said. He shrugged off his vest and pressed it against his sister's cuts to stem the blood flow. "Now, first off, are we absolutely sure that that thing bit you? Could it maybe have been a scratch, like, with his claws?"

Mabel scowled. "Yes, Dipper, that must be it. The giant wolf-thing leaned over to my ankle and attacked me with his razor-sharp whiskers."

Dipper returned the glare. "I'm just trying to help, Mabel."

"Right, sorry. Continue."

"Alright." Dipper moved his vest away. The bleeding hadn't stopped, but it had slowed considerably. "Well, look, even if you were bitten, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's any more serious than, say a dog bite. I mean, just about everything we know about werewolves comes from movies. I somehow doubt that so many Hollywood directors would have any real knowledge of them. I mean, really, you'll probably be okay just getting cleared for rabies or something. Slap a Band-Aid on those cuts and you'll be good to go, right?"

"Uh, Dipper?" Mabel interrupted hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"I think you spoke too soon." She held her hand out into the moonlight where Dipper could get a good look. He leaned forward, and his stomach instantly tightened into a firm knot. Little tufts of thick brown hair had cropped up between Mabel's fingers, and even as he watched, her fingernails seemed to be slowly growing longer.

"Oh," he whispered. "Oh, well, okay, so, um-" he stammered off tentatively. He could handle encountering a werewolf in the woods, but watching his sister transform into one before his very eyes was another matter altogether.

Mabel pulled her hand back into her sleeve. "I'm turning into a werewolf, aren't I?"

"Well," Dipper said, adjusting his hat, "well, we really can't know for sure-"

"_Dipper!_"

Dipper sighed. "Yes. I'm pretty sure you are."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, both allowing the words to sink in. Finally, Mabel cleared her throat. "You know, maybe this isn't a bad thing."

Dipper turned to stare at her, his mouth falling open. "Mabel, how could this possibly not be a bad thing?"

"Well, think about it," Mabel said. A smile had begun to make its way across her face. "Werewolves have all kinds of cool powers, don't they? Like, they're super fast and strong and have an awesome sense of smell. And, it could be romantic too! I mean, how cute would it be, to be in a werewolf-human relationship? Werewolves can be really cute, you know."

"Mabel, think back to the werewolf we just ran away from. At what point did he strike you as 'cute'?"

Mabel's face fell. "Oh. Oh, yeah, I forgot." She inhaled slowly. "Dipper?"

"Yeah?"

"You reek."

Dipper raised one eyebrow. "I see we're changing the subject."

"No, no, it's just-" Mabel sniffed again. "I couldn't smell it at all before, but now I can't believe I didn't notice it. Can you smell anything?" Her brother shook his head. "You don't think it's some sort of werewolf-y super-smell, do you?"

"It might be," Dipper replied. "If you're transforming, it's going pretty slow. Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that it was your ankle that he bit. I think in the movies they usually go for the neck or-" He stopped as a suddenly realization dawned on him. "Mabel? What do you think is going to happen when you- if you transform? You don't think you'll kinda lose your head and start attacking?"

Mabel's eyes widened. "Oh man, oh man," she whispered, taking a leaf out of Dipper's book. "Dipper, we have to stop it! I don't want to turn into a werewolf!"

"Mabel, calm down!" Dipper cried. "Don't you think if I knew how to stop it, I would?"

"Well, you _should_ know!" Mabel snapped back. "You're always reading that dumb book of yours and studying all those weird magic-y creatures and stuff!"

Dipper stared. "The book," he said slowly. "Yes, the book! I know I saw something about werewolves in the book at one point! But I can't remember what."

"Then let's go get that book," Mabel said, getting to her feet. "And let's make it fast, I think my teeth are starting to get longer."

Dipper looked out of the cave into the dense trees. "But how the heck are we going to find our way back to camp without the flashlight?"

"Dipper, I can smell what's left of the campfire all the way from here!" Mabel said. "Come on, Dipping Sauce, and just leave the navigating to Mabel!"

* * *

A/N: Well, this one's a tad shorter than the others. Sorry I took so long to update; I've been crazy busy with college stuff for next year.


	7. Chapter 7

Every footstep she took sounded to Wendy like thunder as she trudged her way through the woods, flashlight in hand, Stan beside her, Soos behind them, and her ears strained for any sound that might be a hint at Dipper and Mabel's location. Years out in the woods with her dad had given her experience in tracking through the thick trees by noticing the tiny disturbances of the branches and the ground, but even an expert tracker would struggle to find anything in the dead of night like this.

"What those two kids need," Stan grumbled, "are leashes, like those little kids you see in the pictures on the internet. All the time, they vanish for hours at a time, then come back covered in mud with some cockamamie story about a minotaur or a sea monster or something."

"Stan, they're twelve years old," Wendy said. "Twelve-year-olds explore."

"Still." Stan let out a small yelp as he stubbed his toe on a large rock that was hidden from the flashlight's beam. "What were they thinking?!" he said. "When I find them-"

"Mr. Pines, shh!" Soos hissed. "You don't want anything to hear you!"

"And what, Soos, could possibly hear me out here?"

"Well, we don't know what Dipper and Mabel ran into. If it's some sort of creepy monster thing, then you wouldn't want to give away your location, would you? You know, lest you be found by some sorta hungry forest beast."

"Soos," Stan said, "if there's anything out there looking for someone to eat, your smell is going to attract it a lot quicker than my voice."

"Guys, would you hush up?" Wendy snapped. "You're distracting me."

"Sorry, Wendy," Soos said. They continued to walk through the trees in silence, save for Stan incessantly muttering under his breath.

As they walked, Wendy kept her eyes peeled, focused on the branches and bushes at her sides. If the ground had been clearer, she could probably have found some sort of footprints to follow, but as it were, her more reliable option was to look out for places where branches were bent or broken, and use those as pathmarkers.

"Hey, guys?" she said after a while, pointing the flashlight at what little remained of a thick branch on a tree trunk. "You might want to check this out."

Stan and Soos joined her at the tree to look at the branch's stump. Stan shrugged his shoulders. "Another branch broken off. So what?"

"So, this," Wendy said. She reached out her arm and ran her fingers along several scraggly lines on the stump that broke through the bark to the lighter wood below.

"Dude," Soos said in an awestruck whisper, "are those claw marks?"

"Pretty sure," Wendy replied.

Stan frowned. "That shouldn't mean anything. I mean, something could have taken that branch off days ago. Maybe a bear or something."

Wendy shook her head. "No," she said. "If that was the case, the lighter wood on the inside would have begun to darken or rot by now. Look, it's still all smooth and yellow. This had to have been really recent."

"The question, then" Soos said, "is if what made the claw mark was a bear like Stan said-"

"Or something worse," Wendy finished.

"Oh, come on!" Stan said, tossing up his hands in exasperation. "I swear, Dipper's gotten into your heads. You don't honestly think there's some kind of monster out here, do you?"

Wendy shot him a glare. "For your information, Stan, those stories he tells aren't all stories. That time he told you about those ghosts at the convenience store? I saw those with my own eyes."

"Sure," Stan snapped. "And I suppose it was my wax statues that broke the 'S' off of my roof? And it was a grem- gremlilob- gremlin-goblin or whatever it was that tore out that wall of the Shack?"

"You're a crappy uncle, Stan."

"Noted."

At that moment, the three of them stood stock still as they heard something in the trees off to the right. Wendy whipped her flashlight around. She didn't see anything, but she could definitely hear something. And she could swear that the something she heard was footfalls. "Mabel?" she called. "Dipper? Is that you?"

Whatever was approaching didn't answer, but the footsteps began to grow louder. They were definitely too big to belong to either of the twins.

"Wendy?" Soos said. "That's not Dipper and Mabel, dude."

"Well, if it's not them, then who-" Then she heard the low guttural growl.

"Run," Wendy whispered.

"But what the heck is-" Stan began.

Wendy cut him off. "I don't know, but I'm betting we should get away from it. Now go."

They took off without hesitation. Wendy quickly took the lead, as the creatures growling crescendoed. She wasn't sure if it was simply growling more loudly now, or if It was starting to catch up to them, but she wasn't about to turn around and look for herself.

She darted between the trees it a jolting zig-zag, pattern, hoping to throw off the animal's tail. It seemed to be working; unfortunately, she also managed to lose Stan and Soos. She whipped her head around frantically. "Stan?" she called out. "Soos?" She could hear the creature's footsteps off in the trees. "Stan! Soos! Where are-"

Her words were cut off as a hand clapped over her mouth. "Dang it, Wendy," Stan's voice whispered into her ear. "We just managed to lose that thing. You want it to find us again?"

"Where's Soos?" Wendy asked.

"Soos? I thought he was up here with you."

"No, of course he-" she stopped as a loud crash emitted from the trees nearby. "Get away!" she cried.

"Where?" Stan snapped. "We've reached the cliff wall. We're at a dead end."

"Then- I don't know- climb a tree or something!" With that, she began clambering through the thick branches of one of the trees. Stan ascended one beside hers, surprisingly nimbly for a man his age. Just as Wendy reached a branch she felt was high enough, a figure burst through the trees. Wendy held her breath, then let out a sigh of relief when she got a better look.

"Soos!" she said. "Is that thing still there?"

"No," Soos panted, "but it's on my tail, dude!"

"Then don't just stand there, climb a tree!" Stan yelled.

"Right," Soos said. He hurried over to a tree, grabbed onto a branch, and tried to heave himself up. He dangled mere inches off the ground for a second or two before he lost his grip and plopped back onto the ground. "Okay, don't climb," Stan said. "Just hide."

Soos ran around to the other side of the tree and stood up straight against it. "What are you doing?" Wendy said.

"Hiding," Soos replied.

"Well, don't hide there!" Wendy said. "And hurry, I think I hear it coming!"

Soos took off again, this time into a space in the wall of the cliff. Just as his leg slipped out of sight, the creature they had seen before crashed into their clearing, growling viciously. It looked up into the trees. Spotting Wendy first, it reared up on its hind legs and snapped hungrily at the teen. Wendy pulled her feet up onto the branch with her and sat with bated breath.

After a moment, the creature seem to lose interest in her. It turned around and scratched at the tree holding Stan, but he had managed to getting even higher up than minute. With a final growl, the beast turned tail and bounded back into the forest.

Wendy waited a very long minute before she released her breath and slid down from the tree. "It's gone, guys!" she said. "You can come out now!"

Stan climbed carefully out of his tree and Soos walked slowly back to Wendy. There was something in his hands, and his face had gone pale.

"What's the matter, Soos?" Stan asked.

"I found this," Soos said, holding up the object. "It was in my hiding spot over there."

Wendy flicked on her flashlight for a better look, the gasped. Dipper's vest lay in Soos' hand, and a patch on the fabric bore a dark red stain.

* * *

A/N: You know what's fun? Writing reviews is fun. Hint.


	8. Chapter 8

"The camp should be right through there," Mabel said excitedly, pointing with a hand that had grown terrifyingly like a paw since the twins had left their grotto. She bounded through the trees, her legs having already developed a wolflike lope, and Dipper struggled to keep up with her.

"Finally," he panted. His sister's newfound speed had been useful in getting them to the campground quickly, and Dipper was eager to match it, but Mabel certainly had the upper hand in regards to stamina.

A relieved grin spread across Dipper's face as he saw the silhouette of one of the tents up ahead of him. He and Mabel broke through the wood, and Mabel moved her paws up to her face, where whiskers had begun to grow, and where patches of fur started to spread from her hairline to the center of her face. "Hurry, Dipper!" she moaned. "I don't think I have much longer!"

"Right," Dipper said. He rushed into the boys' tent, barely giving a second thought to the absence of Grunkle Stan and Soos, and pulled his enormous suitcase out and set it on the ground. Skidding to his knees so quickly that some tiny gravel in the dirt managed to break the skin, he unzipped the top flap of the bag and began rummaging through his luggage, searching for his flashlight and the journal.

"Dipper, I think I feel a snout coming!" Mabel cried. "Look faster!"

"I'm searching as fast as I can!" Dipper said. He hurried around to the other side of the bag and, with a grunt of effort, tilted it onto its side so that its contents spilled out over the ground. "Quick, help me find the flashlight!"

Mabel joined him, and the two of them sifted frantically through the hodgepodge of Dipper's supplies, tossing aside emergency blankets and guidebooks and compasses and whistles. "Found it!" Mabel squealed, pulling her brother's heavy flashlight out from a tangled bundle of jumper cables.

"And I got the book," Dipper said. He lifted the journal out of the folds of a thin, reflective emergency blanket. "Toss me the flashlight." Mabel complied. Dipper caught it and flicked it on, thrilled to finally see properly. Although, he realized, the sky had gotten considerably lighter since last he took a close look at it. Morning must have been approaching.

Dipper flipped rapidly through the aged yellow pages of the journal. He knew he had seen the part about werewolves somewhere in the middle; he just needed to figure out where exactly it was. He passed through sections about pixies, kappas, and a weather-changing spell, and finally landed on a page that bore the heading: _Werewolves?_

A sketch of two werewolf bodies, one facing forward and the other in profile, took up half of the left page. The rest of this page and the one opposite were filled with a minuscule, compact scrawl that cleared straight past the margins and up to the edge of the paper. Dipper moved the flashlight closer and began to read.

_It is now that I begin my study of another creature that I had thought existed only in folklore, before arriving in this curious town. I have observed the presence of creatures in the forest that bear many of the qualities held by the werewolves of legend. A unique species, for they differentiate themselves from other half- or sub-human creatures I have encountered in that they shift between two forms- human and animal- rather than existing in a permanent form that embodies a mixture of the anatomies of the two. Additionally, they do not appear to possess the ability of other shapeshifting species to alter their form at will; their transformations without fail follow the direct of the lunar cycle. _

"Found anything yet?" Mabel said.

"I'm looking, I'm looking," Dipper replied.

"Well, look faster," Mabel cried. The back of her sweater tore open as her back lengthened and hunched over. "Much faster!"

_The werewolves in the forest are similar to their mythological origins mainly in physiology and musculature. The size ratio of hind to foreleg muscles, in addition to greater pelvic strength, allows more human movement than what lies in the capabilities of a natural wolf. Originally, the anatomical similarities suggested to me that the traditional werewolf was additionally identical to the modern, including in terms of vulnerabilities and immunities. _

_However, I find that said mythos is hit or miss. They have, in my experience, displayed aversion to silver, but not one that Is fatal. On the other hand, several qualities traditionally assigned to the classical vampire, such as weakness toward garlic and vulnerability to wooden staking, have been evident in the local werewolf populations. This is, of course, qualitative data from a highly limited study, for with the coming of daylight the creatures are wont to revert back to their human, albeit more animalistically so, form. _

Dipper looked up. So the werewolf would transform back to human by sunrise? The sky had already taken on shades of purple and red. Maybe if they could just get her to hold off transforming completely until sunrise, they could stop it altogether.

Then again, what if that only lasted until the next full moon. No, he needed a real cure, and fast.

"Dipper!" Mabel squeaked, holding her hands over her nose, which had become black and damp. "Hurry! I need to stop this _now_!"

"I'm trying!" Dipper shouted back. "Just hold off for one more moment." He scanned the scrawling penmanship that continued onto the next page, until one word caught his eye and filled him with relief. "Yes!" he muttered. "Cure!"

_I took it upon myself to search for a cure for the werewolfism afflicting the subjects I had found in the forest. The medieval methods of bloodletting and exorcism were, naturally, out of the question, but I held out hope for the properties of wolfsbane. Sadly, while the wolfsbane proved effective in pacifying the werewolf and minimizing their physical threat, they did nothing to prevent the transformation to the wolflike form. I have discovered, however, that the form can be reverted if the flesh of the beast is pierced by the above listed Achilles' heels, namely wooden stakes and any weapon composed of silver. _

"Yeah," Dipper mumbled, "but I want to _cure_ her, not kill her!"

At that moment, a sound that had become distressingly familiar reached his ears. The growl of the werebeast, right in front of him. He slowly lifted his eyes, and his jaw dropped. It wasn't the creature from the forest.

His twin sister stood before him, hunched over so as to be at eye level, her claws flexed, teeth bared, and each breath punctuated by a low growl. And her eyes. They seemed similar to that strange shape her eyes took whenever she overindulged on Smile Dip, but these eyes looked fiercer, hungrier.

With a swipe of the beast's claw, Dipper felt a sharp sting cut across his face. He rolled out of the way, clutching the journal to his chest. Mabel let out a roar and pounced, pinning his leg to the ground. Dipper yanked it out of the way before her teeth could get anywhere near it, crying out as the flesh tore.

The two of them seemed to have begun some sort of deadly game: swipe and dodge, and Dipper took the brunt of the force of Mabel's heavy claws, unwilling to fight back for fear of exposing himself to his sister's fangs. He backed up against the corner of the tent and thrust one of the emergency blankets onto the werewolf, who howled and began scratching madly at it.

Dipper glanced anxiously at the sky. If he couldn't cure Mabel, and he knew he couldn't now, the best he could hope for was to dodge her until sunrise, and then maybe they could find a cure before the next full moon. It was already growing so light out. Just a few more moments-

He let out a yelp. Without his notice, Mabel had gotten the blanket off and had pounced again, pinning Dipper and the side of the tent to the ground. Her claws dug into his shoulders, and he bit his lip so hard to keep from yelling out that the lip was probably bleeding too. He tried to wrench himself away, but Mabel was too heavy.

The creature opened her mouth, her fangs bared and ready to crunch down.

Dipper's next motion was pure unconscious instinct. His right wrapped around the first thing he could grip, which turned out to be the wooden spike that held a corner of the tent in place. Mabel's teeth barreled towards him, and he squeezed his eyes shut and held the spike defensively out in front of his chest.

A drop of bile stuck in his throat as Mabel's growls stopped abruptly and the spike stuck.

* * *

A/N: Uh-oh, PaperKayak made one of those cliffhanger thingies. Darn her.

Don't forget to review!


	9. Chapter 9

Dipper took a deep breath before he dared to open his eyes. Even as he watched, his sister began to morph slowly back to the Mabel he knew. He held his hand firmly to the wooden spike, afraid to move it at all. It wasn't bleeding too hard, which was a stroke of sheer luck, but Dipper knew that the slightest movement could hit something major.

"Mabel?" he whispered when it looked like her transformation was complete.

Mabel stared at him with wide eyes, then looked down to the bit of wood that Dipper was gripping tightly in a white hand. "Oww..." she said, starting to pull away.

"Careful!" Dipper snapped. "Make sure that thing doesn't move around. Just hold still for now. Here, take hold of this."

Mabel moved her hand to take the spike from Dipper, a wave of dizziness passing across her. "Dipper?" she said, "Did I-? I mean, I didn't-"

"You transformed," Dipper replied. "But, hey, look, see, you're back to normal now, right? And... just a sec..." He pulled a heavy first aid kit out of the pile of luggage on the ground and dragged it over to Mabel. "And you and Grunkle Stan thought I was being all kinds of paranoid," he said with a slight smile. He opened up the first aid kit and set out some cloths, bandages, and bottles of various ointments.

"Should I try and get this thing out?" Mabel asked.

Dipper shook his head. "No. Wait, at least. I've got a manual in here." He pulled out a thick booklet and flipped to the index. "Do you think a tent spike classifies as a 'Puncture Wound' or 'Foreign Object In Skin'?"

"I don't know," Mabel groaned. "Surprise me. Just get it out."

"Okay, I'm going with 'foreign object'. It says we're supposed to wash the area with soap and water first. I'll get started on that." He stood up and went to the cooler to get some fresh water.

Mabel watched him as he walked, her head finally ceasing its constant swimming and her eyes managing to focus. She noticed that Dipper was limping and was quick to see why. "Dipper?" she said. "That cut on your leg."

Dipper turned around, water bottle in hand. "What about it?"

"Did- did I-" she gulped. "Was that- did I do it?"

"Oh," he said, dropping his gaze as he squatted down to start washing the wound. "Well, I mean, I guess. Technically. But, but you didn't mean it, right? You couldn't help it. It's fine, really it is."

"There's a cut on your face too," Mabel said, pointing. "And your shoulders. Oh, gosh, Dipper-"

"Don't worry about it," Dipper interrupted. "Really, I don't think they're even that deep. Here, I'm gonna take the spike out now, so just hold as still as you can, okay?"

Mabel nodded, and looked away, holding back a cry as she felt the spike being pulled out, and the wound began bleeding afresh. "Now we just squeeze it," Dipper said, "Get some of the germs out." He glanced back at the manual. "Then we wash it, pat dry, and put on some antibiotic ointment, and you should be okay, so long as there's no infection."

"Dipper," Mabel said suddenly, "I'm sorry."

Dipper looked up. "For-"

"For, you know." She gestured vaguely with her hand. "For that."

Dipper nodded. "It's okay. I'm okay, really. I'm just- I'm just glad tonight's over. You're back to normal, we're going home." He sighed as he began washing the gash out again. "Besides, if anyone should be apologizing, it should be me."

"What for?" Mabel asked. She grabbed one of the cloths out of the first aid kit and handed it to her brother.

"Thanks," Dipper said. He set the now-empty water bottle aside and begin dabbing at Mabel's side. "I'm sorry because I'm the one who got us into this in the first place. If I hadn't gone out into the woods looking for that thing, and if I hadn't taken you along with me, you never would have gotten bitten at all."

"Yeah, I guess," Mabel said thoughtfully. "But if we're going by that logic, then it's Grunkle Stan's fault we were even out here at night. Wanna just blame him?"

Dipper stared at her for a second, and then a bright grin broke out over his face. "Okay, deal, we blame Stan." He picked up a bottle of antibiotic ointment from the kit. "I think this'll probably sting a little, so just hang in there for a moment."

If there's one thing Mabel had learned from doctors, it was that "sting a little" loosely translated to "hurt like the bloody devil". She tried to stay quiet, but the moment the ointment hit the exposed skin, she let out a yell.

"Sorry!" Dipper cried. "Sorry, I know it stings!"

"Dipper? Mabel? Is that you?"

The twins froze at the sound of a familiar voice cutting through the woods to the campsite. "Wendy!" Dipper shouted. "Wendy, we're back at camp!"

The sound of running footsteps pierced the air for a moment before Wendy burst into the clearing. Her clothes and hair seemed to be serving as a pincushion for pine needles, and their were dark rings around her eyes from a night of lost sleep. Still, she smiled in relief when she saw Dipper and Mabel. "You dorks had us all scared out of our minds! Your uncle and Soos and I have been looking all over for you guys! God, what the heck happened? You didn't meet up with that weird wolf thing, did you? Oh, God, are you okay?"

"We're fine," Dipper said, stemming the stream of words. "We're okay. Yeah, we met up with that wolf beast, but we got away."

"You really had me freaked out," Wendy said. "Soos found your vest over in a cave by the cliff, and well, we thought-" She stopped.

Mabel nodded. "Yeah, we got a little bit battered along the way. Where are Grunkle Stan and Soos?"

"Back in town," Wendy said. "When we found the vest, well, we assumed the worst, so Stan and Soos went to get the police. I came around back to the camp just in case."

"The police?" Mabel asked. "Like, Durland and Blubs? Are they even on duty?"

"Yeah, they usually get started pretty early in the morning."

Dipper snapped his head to face her. "Morning?" he repeated. He glanced around, and sure enough, he could see the yellow outline of the sun breaking through the trees. "How long has the sun been up, Wendy?"

Wendy shrugged. "I don't know, a few minutes? Why?"

Dipper shook his head. "No reason."

"Okay, then." Wendy stood up. "I guess we should get you two back home, clean you off, get those cuts bandaged up. And I'll have to call Stan and let him know I found you guys. Come on." She grabbed Dipper and Mabel each by a shoulder and turned them towards home. Dipper let out a sharp his, and Wendy peered over at him before jumping back with a gasp. "Oh, man! I'm sorry, Dipper, I didn't even see that cut there! You doofus, why didn't you tell me? Was that from the wolf?"

Dipper's eye shot to Mabel for only a fraction of a second before he replied, "Yeah. Yeah, it was."

"Oh, man, you poor thing!" Wendy leaned over and gave Dipper a quick peck of the lips on his shoulder.

Immediately, Dipper felt the blood rush into his cheeks. "I, erm," he stammered, "You know, I got scratched pretty bad on my face too, see?"

Mabel rolled her eyes and giggled as Wendy allowed one more quick kiss, and the three of them finally began to make their way out of the woods.

* * *

The twins were both relieved to finally crawl into bed that night. From the moment they had gotten back to the Shack and Wendy had called up Stan, they hadn't had a moment's peace. Soos had hovered over them like a buzzard, trying to make sure every bandage was perfectly straight and panicking whenever either of them so much as grimaced. Grunkle Stan had spent half the afternoon scolding them for going off into the woods on their own like that, and the other half trying to get out of them every detail of what had occurred last night. And they gave him the details, leaving out the parts concerning Mabel's changing.

Mabel flopped onto her comforter with a moan of relief. "Dipper," she said, "I bet you could throw a big dance party in this room right now, and I'd sleep right through it."

"Yeah," Dipper said. "I'm right there with you." He sighed. "Mabel, you can't go to sleep just yet. I need to talk to you."

Mabel looked up. "What about? I think we spent the whole afternoon talking about the camping trip."

"I know, but it's something else." He fidgeted uncomfortably. "You know how when I, um, you know, with the spike, how you transformed back? And we figured it was 'cause that whole wooden-stake thing cured you?"

"Yeah, I remember."

Dipper ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, in the book, it says that the werewolf effects only last during the night, and that once the sun is up, they turn back into human. And, this morning, I didn't even notice, but I used that spike at just about the same time as the sun was rising. And the thing is-" He took a deep breath, "I don't know which came first."

Mabel stared at him. "So, you're saying- What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you might not be cured. You might have just been finished for the night, and- and it's gonna happen again."

Mabel shuddered. "How do we tell which one it is?"

Dipper shook his head and looked out the attic's triangular window, where he could see the moon bright in the sky, just a sliver of shadow keeping it from being full. "We can't tell. At least, not until the next full moon."

"So, what, I just have to sit around and wait until then?"

"Yeah," Dipper whispered, "we just have to wait."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Then Dipper got up and climbed up onto Mabel's bed with her. "Hey, don't sweat it, alright?" he said. "We got through last night in more or less one piece. We can wait this out together."

"And if it turns out I am a werewolf?" Mabel asked.

"Then I guess I'll stick right by you when you transform, looking for a cure."

Mabel smiled. "You're going to get yourself killed someday if you keep coming up with stupid plans like that." She lay her head onto her brother's shoulder. "But thanks. Now we wait?"

Dipper nodded. "Now we wait." He stared out the window for a little longer, before he felt Mabel's breath get heavier and warmer. She had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He gently set her back down in her bed, then covered her up before returning to his own bed. "G'night Mabel," he whispered. And with that, he rolled over and was asleep within seconds.

* * *

A/N: Can't believe it's over! So, is Mabel still a werewolf? Ha! I'll never tell! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave final farewell review!

Also, my second Gravity Falls fic is in the planning stages, so be sure and keep your eyes open for it.


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